‘A robber?’
‘Yes.’
‘A house-breaker?’
‘Just so.’
‘Yes, ma’m,’ said Kitty, blustering into the room with her eyes half shut as before. ‘Did you call me?’
‘Yes,’ said he, stepping up to her, and placing his hand right over her mouth; and then in her ear he said—
‘Kitty, if you speak one word or utter one scream, or make the least noise, I will cut your throat from ear to ear this moment.’
Kitty stopped short, and looked as if she had been suddenly turned to stone. Blodget placed her in a chair, and catching up a handkerchief, he tied it in her mouth, and round the back of her head, and so on to the back of her chair, like a bit.
‘Now be quiet,’ he said.
Kitty sat profoundly still; indeed, her faculties had received such a shock that it would be some time before she’d recover again.